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By Jesus Mesa
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Two recent sexual abuse cases involving young Romani girls have sparked a growing sense of outrage in Spain after courts noted the victims' ethnicities and "cultural context" in their verdicts — in one case acquitting a man who impregnated a 12-year-old girl.
Last week, the Provincial Court of Ciudad Real acquitted a 20-year-old man who impregnated a 12-year-old Romani girl with twins in 2022. Despite Spanish law prohibiting minors under 16 from consenting to sex, the court ruled that the man should be granted a legal exception.
The court found the intercourse was "consensual," justifying the decision by stating, "in Romani culture, this is normal behavior." The defendant reportedly believed the girl was older, discovering her true age only when they visited the doctor for the pregnancy.
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Upon discovering the pregnancy, Spanish law mandated a medical and criminal investigation, leading to the man's arrest. The prosecutor sought a prison sentence of 11 years and six months for continuous sexual abuse of a minor under 16.
However, the provincial court delivered a full acquittal, saying "there was no controversy" since the relationship fell within the Romani community's cultural norms, where sexual intercourse and marriage can be common at a young age.
The court referenced a Spanish penal code statute allowing sexual intercourse under the age of 16 to exclude criminal liability if the age difference is minimal and the individuals are close in maturity. The judges emphasized the consensual nature of the relationship between the man and the girl, noting she could appear as old as 15 both "physically and in her behavior."
A psychological report was presented to support the argument, indicating the minor had normal development and did not view her situation as abuse, describing her as "happy with the situation."
That ruling came just days after a different Spanish court, in the Castilla y León province, reduced the sentence for a man who impregnated a minor three times between the ages of 12 and 15, after the victim said it was a normal part of her culture for young girls to have sex with adults.
The court reduced the man's sentence from 37 years to eight years and nine months, saying of the victim: "despite her young age, she knew what sex was and its consequences."
The ruling drew sharp criticism from government officials as well as groups aligned with the Romani community, which asserted that such events do not align with their culture.
"The Penal Code does not exclude the protection of Romani minors," said Beatriz Micaela Carrillo, the General Director of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination and Against Racism of the Spanish Ministry of Equality. "Otherwise, it would imply that abusing or assaulting Romani girls has few legal consequences."
"The law cannot make exceptions for Romani girls and rely on child consent to reduce the sentence of a rapist. In this nonsense, another barbarity is added: the anti-Gypsy vision by declaring that raping an 11-year-old girl after making her pregnant three times is something normal among Romani," she said.
Sara Giménez, head of Spain's Gypsy Secretariat Foundation, slammed the Castilla y León ruling, saying: "Gipsy culture does not include abuse or the violation of rights. There may be exceptional cases of relationships between minors but these rulings foment negative stereotypes that are really damaging."
The Romani community in Spain, commonly referred to as "gitanos" or "Calé," is estimated to be around 750,000 to 1 million people, representing about 1.6% of the country's total population.
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